Facebook has allegedly deleted an event page dedicated to celebrating a Hezbollah leader’s birthday, according to various Middle Eastern media reports.
More than 7,000 users signed up to attend an event celebrating the 52nd birthday of Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of the Lebanese-based militant group, and many users wrote on the event’s wall. However, Facebook reportedly deleted the page just hours after it was created.
The page was created by Nasrallah’s “young fans” who were glorifying the leader, reports Israeli news site Ynet News. Messages on the event’s wall ranged from praising him to wishing him longevity.
“Congratulations to us that we were born in a Nasrallah’s era,” a fan wrote, according to Al Arabiya. Another user wrote that Nasrallah should be celebrated for rejecting oppression and “stayed as a banner of victory.”
Facebook has been continually active in eliminating Hezbollah-dedicated pages. In August, the social networking website shuttered a page for the group’s television station, Al Manar.
It’s Facebook policy that hate speech and material that “incites violence” is not permitted on the site. Nasrallah has expressed many anti-Israeli sentiments in the past, including calling for Israel’s destruction. The social network has said it considers Hezbollah a terrorist group based on its inclusion on the U.S. State Department’s List of Foreign Terror Organizations.
Facebook has not yet returned our emails for comment regarding the event page being deleted.
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